Henry of Navarre

Regardless of any issues the Henry of Navarre has or one has with the film, it is undeniably a fantastic achievement as a European historical epic of real scale and ambition, and delivers the violent goods with style and panache, despite a modest budget. The cinematography skilfully emulates renaissance paintings of the period, and the battle sequences handled with fierce energy. The filmmakers must have slept easy knowing that Gernot Roll was behind the lens, a veteran of German television’s Heimat series, a landmark of German cinema and one of the finest TV programmes of all time. Director: Jo Baier. Writers: Jo Baier, Heinrich Mann (novel). Stars: Julien Boisselier, Joachim Król and Andreas Schmidt